Barber who lost eye in assault still pleads for justice

A Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara (EBD) man who lost his left eye in an attack believes that his attacker, a 22-year-old man, is getting away with it, despite the fact that he was found not guilty by a court of law.
On June 10, 2021, 24-year-old Horace Mc Lennon was struck to the back of his head and to his back with a chainsaw blade by the brother of a man whom he had accused of physically abusing a nursery school-aged girl.
The force of the blow left his left side pupil protruding and doctors were forced to remove the eye. “I have in a cork eye,” he said as he pleaded for justice during a telephone interview with Guyana Times on Sunday.
He related that at around 20:00h, on the day in question, he was at home when he observed the girl’s stepfather beating her with a “fat wire” because she could not count from one to 10. The man, he said, was in the habit of abusing the child.
Being an individual who does not like to see “advantage tek”, Mc Lennon recounted that he went to the girl’s rescue, lashing her stepfather with a piece of grass.

“Me ain’t give he no hard lash or anything. I just lash he and he walk and go long he way. I just tried to embarrass he because me ain’t want he do them things.”
However, about 30 minutes later, the man’s brother attacked him with the chainsaw blade. “I was trying to protect a little girl from child abuse and the brother come and lash me in my head with the chainsaw blade,” he stated as he pleaded for justice.
According to him, the man who inflicted the life-changing injuries on him was charged and kept on remand pending a trial. But at the end of those proceedings, the man, he noted, was found not guilty because of “lack of evidence”.
He has accused the prosecutor of misconduct. Prior to the incident, Mc Lennon, who has no children, worked as a barber/tattoo artist. Reflecting on his life now, the young man said, “This incident has affected me really, really bad. I can’t really work and them things now.” He added that the man who attacked him never even offered him any assistance.
In addition, Mc Lennon’s sister expressed sadness at her brother’s current state and is hoping that the relevant authorities can assist him.
“He can’t work because the sun is affecting his other eye.” She recounted that after the incident, the pupil of her brother’s eye “was left running out”.
If he had to go to the little girl’s rescue again, Mc Lennon said with much certainty that he would do it all over again. “If you had seen this lil girl…tears would have come out of your eyes. I deh pon God’s side. If this thing happen again to people, I feel I might do that again because I don’t like see advantage at all,” he added.
Believing the court system has failed him, he is contemplating his next move.